The best Sunday lunches aren’t the fancy ones in the posh restaurants, but the big hearty comforting ones you get at home.

But every now and again I’ll find a pub that offers that special homemade charm, and The Fox and Hounds is definitely on that list.

“The Fox” is as traditional a pub as you could hope for. It has a stunning country location, a quaint old fashioned building and a good range of real ales. There has been a pub on that site since the 16th century, and a board near the door records every licensee since 1754.

We ordered a pint of the Trappers Hat from the nearby Brimstage Brewery and a glass of lime and soda (I was in the driver’s seat) while we had a look through the menu. It offers a good variety of dishes at reasonable prices, with starters, mains, light bites, salads, cheese and my favourite description – “odds and sods”, which included all the side orders.

We wanted puddings so rather than a big starter just shared the ordered the bread & olive platter (£3.25), which offered three big slabs of homemade granary bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, green olives and black olives. It was more than enough as the portions of the main courses being delivered to nearby tables seemed very generous.

The decor at the Fox is pleasingly quaint, with dozens of flying ducks adorning the walls. The ladies’ loos are decorated with foxes and there are Trivial Pursuit cards on each table so you can quiz your dining companions while you wait for your food.

For my main course I was delighted to see a Ploughman’s on the salads menu. It offered four cheeses – creamy Lancashire, Barkham Blue, British brie, and Kick Ass cheddar with fruit and fresh bread (£9.95 for large or £8.55 for small).

For the main course, my boyfriend chose the obligatory Sunday roast dinner. There were many other tempting options on the menu but given that he always complains that he didn’t have a proper Sunday dinner for most of his university and bachelor life, he’s been making up for it recently in earnest.

Having had quite a few in recent weeks, he’s become more and more difficult to please. Initially, I think he was just glad to be reminded of home comforts, but since then he’s become a bit more fussy.

When the plate arrived it was piled high with succulent beef, roast potatoes and a big, crispy Yorkshire pudding.

He was so taken by the roast potatoes that he forgot there was veg to be brought out too. The carrots, broccoli and cabbage added a welcome splash of colour to the meal.

But the roast potatoes had certainly captivated him. In recent weeks they’ve been the main disappointment of some of the otherwise very good roast dinners he’s had, but these were outstanding. Super-crisp on the outside and fluffy and creamy on the inside, they were stealing the show from the beef.

The meat, however, was equally worthy of praise. Chunky slabs of beef that were all decent cuts, which didn’t mean the plate was left with a big pile of stringy sinew in the middle when he’d devoured the meal. The Yorkshire pudding, too, was just right: crisp around the top and soggy from soaking up all the gravy on the bottom.

The veg, which a lot of places just boil the life out of and serve unseasoned, had a salty, buttery glaze to them that gave them an extra lift.

It was so huge I asked if I could take half of it home, and our friendly waitress happily packed it up in foil for me. Thankfully there was still some lemon pudding with custard (£4.75) left, which I gratefully ordered, while my boyfriend ordered apple pie.

He often tells me that apple pies have a hard act to follow, given how great his grandma’s used to be. This, like any other, wasn’t a patch on hers (what could be?) but it was a good mix of sweet and sour. The pastry could have been a little more crisp, but given that it was never going to match his grandma’s perfection, it still had a good try and was wolfed down appreciatively.

As Sunday dinners go, it was the best we’d had in a long time. Hearty, informal and a bit old fashioned, it was like going for dinner at a friend’s mum’s house. In short – just what we’d been hoping for.

I picked up the remains of my ploughman’s and we headed home, full and happy and safe in the knowledge that we’d be back soon.